Pubblicato il 12/10/16 ed aggiornato il

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | The Umbrellas, 1881-1886 | Art in Detail

Renoir's 'Umbrellas' shows a bustling Paris street in the rain. The composition of the painting does not focus on the centre of the picture which is a tangle of hands. It even cuts of figures at either edge like a photographic snapshot. This kind of unconventional arrangement was something that several of the Impressionists, including Renoir and Degas, enjoyed experimenting with.

The work is particularly intriguing in that it shows the artist at two separate points in his career, the second of which was a moment of crisis as he fundamentally reconsidered his painting style.

When he began 'The Umbrellas' in 1880-1, Renoir was still using the typically loose brushwork and bright, pure colours of the Impressionist movement - the sort of technique he employed in 'The Skiff (La Yole)'.